The 2014 Winter Olympics open today in the Russian city of Sochi, on the edge of the troubled Caucasus region.
Attacks by Islamic militant groups in the North Caucasus made headlines in December.
Less is known about Sochi's neighbours in the equally fragile South Caucasus. Half an hour's drive along the coast from Sochi airport is the disputed territory of Abkhazia, which broke away from Georgia after a brutal war in the early 1990s.
Thousands were killed and almost a quarter of a million people were displaced. The region remains divided and contested.
In 2008, during the Beijing Summer Olympics, Georgia and Russia fought a brief war, which resulted in Russia recognising Abkhazia as an independent state, no other European states have recognised Abkhazia.
Georgia is sending a team to the Winter Olympics, but relations between Georgia and Russia remain in the deep freeze, and Abkhazia remains in limbo.
Conciliation Resources, an international peacebuilding organisation has been working with people on either side of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict divide to promote reconciliation and can offer insight into the challenging dynamics of a complex region.
/ENDS
Media contact:
For interviews with Dr Rachel Clogg, Caucasus Programme Director please contact:
Tamanna Kalhar | Media & Communications Officer | Mobile: +44 (0)7436 102 514 | tkalhar@c-r.org